How do you prevent and address burnout?

Question

Accepted Answer

Prevent burnout by **managing sustainable pace and removing chronic stressors**, and address it early by treating the cause, not just the symptom. Burnout is usually a systemic problem — workload, lack of control, unfairness — not an individual weakness.

## Prevent it

```text
SUSTAINABLE PACE → marathons, not endless sprints; protect recovery after crunch
AUTONOMY         → control over how they work reduces stress
CLARITY          → ambiguity and shifting priorities exhaust people
FAIRNESS         → perceived unfairness is a major burnout driver
LOAD             → watch on-call, "hero" dependencies, and constant context-switching
MODEL IT         → take real PTO yourself; don't glorify overwork
```

## Spot and address it

- **Early signs:** cynicism, withdrawal, dropping quality, exhaustion, a reliable person slipping.
- **Act on the cause:** "take a few days off" without fixing the workload just delays the crash.
- **Have the conversation:** "You seem stretched thin. Let's look at your load and what we can drop."

## Pitfalls

- **Treating burnout as a personal failing** rather than a system signal.
- **Rewarding the heroics** that cause it (the always-on engineer becomes the model).
- **A wellness perk** instead of fixing the actual overload.

## Why it matters

Burnout is expensive: it tanks productivity and quality, and your best, most committed people are often the most at risk because they push hardest.

A sustainable pace is not soft; it is how you keep a team performing for years instead of burning bright and then losing your strongest people to exhaustion.